His Pregnant Princess Read Free

skin against tan, “this went better than I expected.”
    “Already?” he asked, leaning in, his breath fanning over her cheek. “I haven’t even kissed you yet.”
    “But I think we got naked in record time.”
    “Eightyears hardly feels like breaking any land-speed records to me,” he said.
    “True. But...for the purposes of tonight it was...great timing.”
    “Timing is everything.”
    “I suppose. I mean, that’s the case with those shrimp-chewing photos anyway.”
    He sifted his fingers through her hair, his eyes intent on hers. She could feel him, feel his erection hardening against her hip, and a little shock of nerves ran through her.
    Yes, there was most certainly a gulf of experience between them. But he did know that. He’d known her since she was sixteen, well enough to know that she’d hardly been kissed before much less...
    Well, this .
    “Yes. And if they are an example of that then your timing is superb.”
    “Often,” she said.
    Alys put her hand on his shoulder, then slid her fingertips down his arm. He was so hard. So masculine. So very different from her. She quite liked it.
    “This,” she said, brushing her fingers against his, “can’t ever be more than tonight. It can never be more than sex. I assume you know that?”
    He laughed and cupped her cheek. “Trying to let me down gently?”
    “Only... It’s just that you’re my very dear friend and I don’t wish to compromise that with confusion.” Even as she said the words they felt stupid on her tongue. Heavy and completely nonsensical. As if they would come out of this unscathed. As if she would ever look at him the same way again.
    But she would try. She would try.
    “So it’s best to be honest, then?” he asked.
    “Yes, I should think.”
    “Then you should know that I have fantasized about this moment for much longer than I should have done. I have thought of you...how you would look, how your skin would feel against mine. What it would be like to kiss you...so many times there are paths worn in my mind to those thoughts. So that no matter what happens, they’re easy to get to. So that I can always find my way back to them. To you.”
    She swallowed hard. “I think it’s past time you kissed me.”
    He dipped his head, his mouth claiming hers, her tongue sliding against the seam of her lips, coaxing them open. Oh, she had never truly been kissed like this. Because this was Liam. The reason she needed this experience before marriage.
    If it hadn’t been for him, it wouldn’t have mattered. She didn’t have a burning desire to experience sex in general, but she had a need—a fierce, gripping need—to be with him .
    He kissed her neck, his tongue sliding along her collarbone, down to her breast. He sucked her deep into his mouth and she arched against him, a hoarse sound escaping her lips. It was not at all dignified and, if captured on film, would be much more newsworthy than her eating shrimp. But she didn’t care. Nothing mattered but Liam’s lips on her skin. Liam’s body against hers.
    She finally had him in her arms and she found now that she did, she never wanted to let him go. Frightening. Exhilarating.
    He moved his hands over her curves as he explored her with his lips and tongue, his mouth hot on her neck, her breasts. She looked down at him, at the man who was more dear to her than any other person on earth, and her heart shook.
    This was Liam. She’d had him as a protector. As a friend. Even, on occasion, playing the part of stern guardian. But this was Liam as the lover. The last piece of him. One she’d never been privileged enough to have before.
    And as the pieces of him came together, it was like the pieces of herself came together, too. The princess, the woman, the lover, the friend.
    She was more whole in that moment than she’d ever been before.
    “Kiss me,” she said, even though that was what he was doing. But he understood what she meant. He pressed his lips to hers, the kiss deep and